Bizarre Bizarro!

Just finished readng Superman: Red Son again yesterday. Think it was the fourth time. But this time it was special 'cos I read it with Melissa. See, every once in while, we read stuff aloud so we can both enjoy whatever it is we're reading. The going may be slower than usual when it comes to actual books, but it works well with graphic novels. It really makes the chracters come to life. :) And Red Son is the first we've finished together. And what a trip it was! Mel finally got to see why this was my favourite Superman series, as well as ]where all these DC Direct Red Son figures I was buying were coming from. And if you've never read Superman Red Son then you're missing out on all the twists, turns and surprises that only a writer like Mark Millar can pull off! ;)

Here's his Red Son Bizarro by DC Direct















If you've never read the Eisner winning limited series, this Bizarro is not from a parallel world, but rather a clone of the Superman of that world, who landed in Russia in 1938. B-dog here is one of Lex Luthor's many attempts at foiling the Big Blue...er..Big Grey and Red Super Commie?

And of course, Lex is American and so is his test tube baby!

Fantastic detail on the toy, as is usually delivered by DC Direct. But of course, articulation takes a big hit. He comes only in a special 4-pack with Superman (younger version), Wonder Woman, and Batman.












Bizzizle here has 11 points of articulation:

-Swivel head

-Ball-jointed shoulders

-Hinge elbows

-Swivel wrists

-Hinge legs

-Hinge knees

His torso lacks any form articulation as in most (all?) DC Direct figs. But he does have wrists where President Superman doesn't. And while Pressie Supes' has super stiff joints, Bizarro's are tight enough but not too tight. This means his thigh/hip joints can rotate such that he can do a split. I tried testing Supes' limits and ended up with some paint being scatched of his butt and front hip. -_-

Bizarro comes with a flag and a Red Son insignia stand (very first pic right on top!), which is really nice when you stand him on it. The flag is very well painted and deliberately creased for a cloth effect.















Ratings!

Aesthetics: 10/10 - Painted well except for a very minor drop of blue on this guy's right boot. His skin is especially well captured from the pages of the series. Check out the wash. Check out his eyes too!

Chest insignia, cape, belt--all very reminiscent of an American Superman. Oh yes. Nothing says American Superman louder than a red and yellow "U.S." on one's chest. ;)




Poseability: 5.5/10 - Better than President Supes, but only slightly.

Fun: 7/10 - And only because I've got Superman and Wonder Woman, who's yet to be opened. Once I get Bats (and maybe Green Lantern) it be lots of fun posing and displaying them. :)


Value: 7/10 - The flag is a very nice touch and the stand, well, he needs it. Considering he's exclusive to the 4 pack and I got him loose for S$25, I'd say he's almost a steal.\

Overall: 7.4/10 - Low for me, I know. But hey! New ratings categories! :P

Unless you're a Red Son fan or a Bizarro nut, you probably won't even give him a second glance at the toy store, so no worries about you getting him. But if you're a fan, then this guy is a must have to complete a limited figure line froma limited comic series. :)

Storm Shadow Style

Funny how a movie can really change your life.

I used to be a huge Duke fan, but after GI Joe: Rise of Cobra, I'm now a Storm Shadow junkie! Well, at least as far as movie Joes go. And it's entirely because of this guy:



It's Korean drama serial "Auntie Killer" Lee Byung-Hun! Why the nickname? Because the housewives here in Asia loooove him. And because we call housewives, especially the old ones, aunties. (Not you, Wanz! :P) Yes, go ahead and YouTube him. 1630 hits, people. That's how big the guy is in Asia, and perhaps now the rest of the world, because of the movie and his toy!

Enter Paris Pursuit Storm Shadow, who bears a pretty good likeness to the actor.

Now I have to say that one the whole, the majority of the movie 3.75" range of movie Joes have great face sculpts that resemble the actors playing them. General Hawk, Ripcord, Zartan, and Duke (Marine uniform) come to mind. And you have to give Hasbro credit for at least trying.

What they did do really well, though, was the articulation on the figures. Storm Shadow here has 22 points of bendy parts.

He has a ball-jointed head and chest, pin-swivel shoulders and elbows, swivel wrists. legs are ball-jointed, with double-joint knees and swivel and ratchet ankles. His lower half articulation is excellent, with perhaps the end of his pants getting in the way of him pivoting his feet, but that really is a minor problem.

His upper half, though, is slightly more problematic. But only slightly. First off, his head can't rotate as far to the right as it can the left because of the slightly lopsided collar. Second, his vest doesn't allow his arms to come together in front of him. They do rotate all the way back but lack of frontal flexibility means he can't properly wield his katana two-handed. And he definitely can't hold the huge ass cannon that come with him on his shoulder with 2 hands. Speaking of which, PP Stormie comes with a variety of good stuff!

Two swords, two sai, a pistol, a stand and a big friggin' cannon/bazooka. He also comes with a double sword scabbard, and a suction cup-like thing that has handles on it. And what's a GI Joe figure is it doesn't come with good stuff? That's right, toys that come with toys for the toys are the best. ;P

Just look at how much you can arm him with!





































And check out the nifty places he can store his arsenal:

But defeinitely no place for the BFG, which I might add, only Stormie gets to fire in the movie to take out the Eiffel tower. It would've been a super cool accesory if only Paris Pursuit Storm Shadow came with it, and not every figure in the movie line. I dunno, maybe Hasbro wanted to keep those of us who haven't seen the movie from guessing who actually gets to fire it. Or maybe they thought every kid in the world would wanna have a BFG after seeing what it can do. Hmm. But too bad Stormie here can't have two hands on it while he's holding the weapon.

Hey but check out the suction cup thingamajig, though. It's deinitely going to come in handy in a glass display cabinet. Finally, all the 3.75" figure height troubles in tall shelf space solved! It'll also make for a nice wall-climbing battle scene.

OK let's rate him!

Character accuracy: 9.5/10 - Great likeness, jumpsuit is nicely detailed and collar molded to look like the way LBH wears it in the movie.

Aesthetics: 9.6/10 - Gotta love the detail they put into this guy. The creases in his jacket and pants, his hair molded just like Stormie in the movie, his light smirk, and his eyes. When painted well, they look like he's actually looking at you. ;) But I have seen some where his eyes are painted too high and he looks like he's perpetually rolling them. Mine's painted slightly high, and looks like he's always looking up when his head's turned to the side--his collar gets in the way left and right. Also, I've seen some with worse painted hair than my Storm Shadow. Or you can just touch him up with a little paint if you're not fussy. :)

Sneakers!








Poseability: 9.7 - I really wanna give him a 10 here just for the double jointed knees--you can do so much with them!


But he loses points for the head and also for the vest getting in the way of his arms and hands coming closer in front of his chest.
























And just for fun, here's Storm Shadow executing a side-kick (At least I hope that's what it is):

Overall: 9.6 - They could've gotten away with doing Storm Shadow with just his ninja mask on and that's it, but they didn't. They gave him a face, and a good one at that. And they're not stopping there. The next wave will see a bare-chested Storm Shadow with cuts all over ala the final battle with Snakeyes in the movie, and there'll be masked and unmasked versions. I'll probably get them both! Woohoo!

Hasbro have done a good job with this line, if Storm Shadow is anything to go by. Now I can't wait to crack open Snake Eyes, General Hawk, Pit Commando, and Accelerator Suit Ripcord, the latter 3 of which I got over the weekend. :) Yo Joe!

DCUC Green Lantern: Ya Learn Something New Every Day

Well, it just took me one animated movie, a Batman villain, a corp of intergalactic peacekeepers, and an action figure to learn my lesson for the day. And that is: DC Universe Classic figures have a standard 23 points of articulation, not 21! Yup, their ankles can move forward and back as well as inwards and out.

So I'd like to apologize to anyone out there who's been reading my reviews and either a)believing me, or b)realizing that I can't count. Silly me.

Well, it was really the DCSH Bane figure below that alerted me to inward and outward ankle articulation, but I'd somehow failed to notice them on all the DCUC figures I had, all them being so well articulated as such. Perhaps Bane's lack of thigh cut joints and double hip/leg joints prompted me to be a little more thourough in looking for articulation in his feet.

So what triggered this sudden discovery in DCUC figures?

Well, DC's been putting out some decent animated movies of late, and so the latest to hit the shelves was Green Lantern: First Flight. The great news for all of us here in Singapore is that these movies are also produced in the Southeast Asia region friendly Code 3 (as opposed to 1 in the US). And for those who don't already know, Code 3s here are much cheaper than Code 1s. So much like the Wonder Woman Animated movie, when I saw the GL:1st Flight DVD going for S$20 in a store, I grabbed it. And watched it. And loved it...And opened DCUC Hal Jordan!

And it was when I was posing him on the stand he comes with and taking shots of him to put up here that I realized he has more ankle movement than I thought. A quick check on my recently acquired Boy Wonder Robin confirmed that I am definitely no Rain Man.

Apologies for misleading all 3(?) of you who read my posts. Let this be the first correct one in a new Emerald Dawn of DCUC reviews.

While the first 8 waves of DCUC action figures have flown into stores thick and fast here even in Southeast Asia, waves 9,10, and 11, have been a bit of a wait. A bit of a long wait, in fact.

Wave 10 was announced for Fall of this year and 11 after that, but wave 9 has been slow to come in here in Singapore mainly because of a 30% wholesale price hike. That means the average retail of a DCUC figure from now on is expected to be S$40-45, and that's scared away most of the smaller stores/retaliers who bring DCUC in on their own. And the big stores here like Toys 'R' Us, Metro, and Robinsons still have stock of previous waves, making them reluctant to bring in new stock while old stuff is still on shelves. (TRU especially, since they even have tons of DC Superhereos Bizarro, Mongul, Darksaid, Black S/skirt Supergirl, and Kal-El going for the low, low price of $9.80.) We can only pray that stores will bring in they new stuff, price be damned! :P

So it's back to Wave 3 for one of the original Maginificent Seven: Hal Jordan as Green Lantern, Protector of Sector 3814 (Known to us civilians as Earth).

I have to admit that Hal never really seemed like an interesting guy to me. I mean, Bats has his Daddy/Mommy issues and Supes has his save the world or love the woman/want to be human dilemma. Hal just never seemed to have the problems these guys had. But watching Green Lantern First Flight changed my view of him a whole lot. And I bet watching this trailer will make you wanna watch the movie!










We're now on the right road to Hal worship!

So how could I resist the action fig after the movie?

He's got all 23 points of articulation for a standard DCUC fig--that's Ball joint head, swivel n hinge shoulders, hinge elbows, swivel wrists, ab crunch joint, swivel waist, swivel n hinge leg joints, hinge knees, swivel thigh cut joints, and double hinge ankles. Phew!

Oh, and he also comes with a standard issue Green Lantern accessory of, well, a power battery that looks like a green lantern.

What I like about characters with flying powers in this line is that if they come with the base, you get to pose them in ways that you couldn't for grounded heroes. So you get a whole range of taking off/landing/flight combat poses you can put them in that, let's say, Robin would look weird in. And most of the time flying dudes don't do no kung fu, which grounded heroes do (but call martial arts, just to be more sophisticated :P). So it works conversely in that you get a whole diffrent range of poses for the kung fu groundies too.

So we've got on the flying side of the Magnificaent 7 Superman, Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter, and Hal here.

And the Martial Artists/Grounded guys would be Batman, The Flash, and also Wonder Woman (She knows some kickass moves, all right. Just check out that animated movie of her's. ;])

Then we've got Aquaman. Hmm.

For some reason our friendly neighbourhood seahorse rider the hardest to find of the Mag 7 here on our sunny island in the sea. And I'm pretty sure he ain't in the waters around us.

But the King if the Seven Seas stands pretty much alone when compared to our good Hal. Jordan's a definite must have for any Green Lantern fan. He's a must have to complete the Magnificent Seven, and he's a must have to lead the members of the Corp when Wave 11 comes a knockin' with the likes of John Stewart, Katma Tui, and Collect n Connect Kilowog in there. Heck, even Cyborg Superman, who's also part of the currently ongoing Blackest Night storyline, is in there.

Then all we would need is a decent sized Sinestro (Oh, I love his character in the animated movie btw! :P).

Ratings!

Character Accuracy: 9.5/10 - Hard to go wrong here. I definitely prefer this uniform to the Abin Sur two-pack "sleeveless" version. Some might like that he's got the white hair at the temples but I think that would just make him look old. (And add to that near-pedophile rep he's somehow gotten. Hah!)

Aesthetics: 9.5/10 - His insignia is very well painted and outlined, his head on the whole is brilliant. The face has a slight frown of concentration, and you can see just the right amount of nostril flare to match. And just look at that hair! Makes one wonder if all pilots have such nice, vibrant, healthy looking locks... He does lose some points for his green being rather flat, and his ring kinda fudged (ok, at least they got paint on it right). His lantern accessory is also just molded green plastic.

Poseability: 9.5/10 - I have to say I'm impressed. It's funny, I've not actually had a flying hero who doesn't have a cape. This is great cos he can kneel, crouch, or be put in a pose where his waist is turned and he doesn't look awkward, and it's a right sight better than I ever thought. :)

Overall: 9.6/10 - The extra tenth on his score is just solely cos of the lack of a cape. (He can kneel! He can kneel! On one knee!) I know, it's strange, but Hal the figure turned out to be as much as a surprise as Green Lantern: First Flight. Get him while you still can!